Mythology Chapter Quiz 14: Demeter and Eleusis
_____ 1. Demeter is the gooddess of (a) the moon (b) night (c) grain (d) rivers
_____ 2. By most accounts, the father of Persephone is (a) Apollo (b) Ares (c) Poseidon (d) Zeus
_____ 3. Which is NOT a name for the queen of the underworld? (a) Hecate (b) Kore (c) Persephone (d) Proserpine
_____ 4. Which is NOT another name for the god who rules that underworld? (a) Dis (b) Hades (c) Pluto (d) Triptolemus
_____ 5. The most complete mythic account of Demeter and Persephone is found in (a) a play by Aeschylus (b) Hesiod’s Works and Days (c) Ovid’s account in the Roman era (d) A Homeric Hymn
_____ 6. What was Persephone doing when Hades kidnapped her? (a) preparing for her marriage with Triptolemus (b) picking flowers with the daughters of Ocean (c) weaving in her mother’s courtyard (d) dancing with Artemis and the nymphs
_____ 7. Which is NOT true of Demeter’s immediate response to Persephone’s kidnapping? (a) she did not eat or drink (b) she roamed the earth (c) she complained bitterly to the other gods (d) she wandered holding burning torches
_____ 8. Who finally told Demeter that Hades had carried off her daughter? (a) Gaia (b) Hecate (c) Helius (d) Hermes
_____ 9. Which is NOT true of Demeter’s arrival in Eleusis? (a) she was disguised as an old woman (b) she sat silently by the Maiden Well (c) she was found first by the daughters of Celeus (d) she persuaded Celeus to hire her as a nursemaid because she had lost her own daughter
_____ 10. Which is NOT true of Demeter’s arrival at Celeus’s palace? (a) she immediately asked to see the child she was to care for (b) she appeared as beautiful and larger than life (c) she did not speak until Iambe cheered her up with her jokes (d) she refused wine but isntead instructed Metaneira to prepare a special drink
_____ 11. Which is NOT true of Demeter’s time in Eleusis? (a) she acted as a nursemaid for Demophoon (b) she secretly tried to immortalize him by burning him in a fire (c) she secretly established the mysteries at Eleusis for the local women (d) she revealed her divinity to Metaineira first
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_____ 12. Zeus finally instructs Hades to release Persephone because (a) her presence is necessary for the Eleusinian Mysteries to be celebrated (b) Hades offended him (c) Demeter blackmailed him by removing all fertility from the earth (d) he (Zeus) had sworn an oath to Demeter that Persephone’s marriage would be celebrated in a proper ritual
_____ 13. Why was Demeter’s daughter required to spend a part of the year in the underworld? (a) She ate some of the pomegranate Hades offered her (b) She had consummated her marriage with Hades (c) She had offended Zeus (d) She had to atone because Demeter had withheld fertility from the earth.
_____ 14. Whom did Demeter select to spread her arts of agriculture? (a) Celeus (b) Iacchus (c) Iambe (d) Triptolemus
_____ 15. According to archeological evidence and written sources, about how long were the Mysteries at Eleusis practiced? (a) 2000 years (b) 1200 years (c) 800 years (d) 600 years
_____ 16. Which of the following was NOT a feature of the Eleusinian Mysteries (a) it was held annually in September/October (b) there were processions between Eleusis and Athens, in which sacred objects were carried (c) initiates cleansed themselves in the sea and made sacrifices (d) Once the initiates reached Eleusis, they were symbolically whipped with light canes
_____ 17. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, What is the term for the things carried in the sacred caskets? (a) hiera (b) kallichoron (c) kykeon (d) talaria
_____ 18. What has been claimed as the ultimate revelation in the Mysteries of Demeter? (a) an ear of grain (b) a loaf of bread (c) a jug of wine (d) a flower
_____ 19. What city-state was intimately involved in the rites at Eleusis? (a) Athens (b) Delphi (c) Sparta (d) Thebes
_____ 20. What does the term “hierophant” refer to? (a) the sacred object (b) the ritual sacrifice (c) the high priest (d) the ritual prayer
_____ 21. What is the kykeon? (a) the pomegranate Persephone ate (b) the altar of sacrifice (c) the basket containing the sacred objects (d) the prescribed drink first mixed for Demeter
_____ 22. Which did the Athenian festival of Thesmophoria NOT involve? (a) eating garlic for three days before the festival (b) bringing all the male children born that year to be dedicated (c) a feast of foods that recalled a pre-agricultural diet (d) camping out on the hill where normally civic functions took place 2